With any project, I look to create spaces where people feel safe to participate, contribute, and lead alongside others. My approach emphasizes collaboration, accountability and shared ownership, as well as active learning with communities to ground our work.

As President of the UN SDG Students Association, I worked with students, faculty, and community partners to co-design programming that invited dialogue rather than prescription. Events like sustainability cafés, creative workshops, and school outreach allowed participants to engage with complex global issues through conversation, reflection, and local action. These spaces brought together students, changemakers, nonprofit partners, each contributing their perspectives and strengths.

In my community-based work, connection often takes the form of listening. While supporting an evaluation project this year and a past gender equity initiative, I collaborated closely with staff and people with lived and living experience to shape evaluation questions and learning priorities. Listening to community members challenged my assumptions about what “success” looks like and reshaped my understanding of accountability. 

Being willing to take on different roles and step outside my comfort zone has also led me to new paths and connections. As a volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross, I work alongside staff and volunteers across departments to welcome community members, respond to inquiries, and help people navigate services. These everyday interactions reinforced for me the importance of compassionate, coordinated support systems and highlighted how interconnected community stakeholders truly are.

Looking back, I’m very grateful for all the people that have helped me along the way, provided lessons of life and imparted their values – I think it’s imperative to try to give back and show appreciation to those who have helped you along the way whenever possible.

Across all settings, I balance my own passion for change by remaining guided by collective needs. I ask questions, remain reflexive and open to adapting the approach. Connection, for me, is not just about bringing people together, but cultivating relationships are respectful, reciprocal, and grounded in care throughout.

Connection will remain central to my future work because sustainable change depends on relationships, not just programs or policies. In development and community-engaged work, especially in a world shaped by such complex challenges and diverse perspectives, its shared connection that enables trust, mutual understanding and collective problem-solving across differences.

I believe meaningful long-term impact can only emerge when the connections between communities, institutions, and individuals are themselves long-term, reciprocal, and grounded in respect for lived experience. In practice, this means investing time in listening, frameworks, and creating feedback loops that allow learning to shape action.

As I continue my academic and professional journey, I aim to work at the intersection of analysis and evaluation, community engagement and collaboration with stakeholders, translating shared knowledge into practice. Whether working with nonprofits or public institutions, I see connection as the bridge between evidence and action.

From my Masters program, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for the need to create spaces that support dialogue across sectors, generations, and communities. We need systems that value relational work, even when it is slower or less visible. When people feel connected to each other and to decision-making processes, solutions become more relevant, resilient, and inclusive.

Ultimately, I believe connection can drive the future of sustainable development by shifting power, strengthening community capacity, and ensuring that progress is shaped by those most affected. It is through connection that lasting change becomes possible.